1.

2 First results, a new mission, and method

While in Breda, Descartes met Isaac Beeckman, a Dutch mathematician and natural
philosopher. Beeckman set various problems for Descartes, including questions about falling
bodies, hydrostatics, and mathematical problems. Descartes and Beeckman engaged in what
they called “physico-mathematica,” or mathematical physics (10:52). Since antiquity,
mathematics had been applied to various physical subject matters, in optics, astronomy,
mechanics (focusing on the lever), and hydrostatics. Beeckman and Descartes brought to this
work a commitment to atoms as the basic constituents of matter; as had ancient atomists,
they attributed not only size, shape, and motion but also weight to those atoms (10:68).
Descartes opened a section in his notebook entitled “Democritica” (10:8), in honor of the
ancient atomist Democritus.
At this time, Descartes discovered and conveyed to Beeckman the fundamental insight that
makes analytic geometry possible: the technique for describing lines of all sorts by using
mathematical equations involving ratios between lengths. Descartes himself did not foresee
replacing geometrical constructions with algebraic formulas; rather, he viewed geometry as
the basic mathematical science and he considered his algebraic techniques to provide a
powerful alternative to actual compass-and-ruler constructions when the latter became too
intricate. When, in the nineteenth century, algebra and analysis took precedence over
geometry, the rectilinear coordinate system of algebraic geometry came to be called
“Cartesian coordinates” in honor of Descartes' discovery.
Descartes left Breda in 1619 to join the Catholic army of Maximilian I (Duke of Bavaria and
ally of France). The war concerned the authority of Ferdinand V, a Catholic, who had been
crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in September. Descartes attended the
coronation and was returning to the army when winter caught him in the small town of Ulm
(or perhaps Neuburg), not far from Munich. On the night of November 10, 1619, Descartes
had three dreams that seemed to provide him with a mission in life. The dreams themselves
are interesting and complex (see Sebba 1987). Descartes took from them the message that he
should set out to reform all knowledge. He decided to begin with philosophy, since the
principles of the other sciences must be derived from it (6:21–2).
Descartes was familiar with both mainstream philosophy and recent innovators (those who,
among other things, rejected aspects of Aristotle's philosophy), including reading that he did
from 1620 on. In 1640, he recalled (3:185) having read various works in philosophy around
the year 1620, written by well-known commentators on Aristotle: Francisco Toledo (1532–
96), Antonio Rubio (1548–1615), and the Coimbran commentators (active ca. 1600),
together with an abstract or summary of “the whole of scholastic philosophy” by Eustace of
Saint Paul (1573–1640), whose Summa Philosophiae was first published in 1609. In 1638, he
recalled having read Thomas Campanella's De Sensu Rerum (1620) about fifteen years
before, and not being much impressed (2:659–60). And in 1630 he was able to rattle off the
names of recent innovators in philosophy (1:158), including Campanella (1568–1639),
Bernardino Telesio (1509–88), Giordano Bruno (1548–1600), Lucilio Vanini (1585–1619),
and Sébastien Basson (b. ca. 1573).
Descartes' activities during the early 1620s are not well-documented. He was in France part
of the time, visiting Poitou to sell some inherited properties in 1622 and visiting Paris. He
went to Italy (1623–25). Upon his return he lived in Paris, where he was in touch with
mathematicians and natural philosophers in the circle of his long-time friend and
correspondent Marin Mersenne (1588–1648). While in Paris, he worked on some
mathematical problems and derived the sine law of refraction, which facilitated his work on
formulating mathematically the shapes of lenses (later published in the Dioptrics). His major
philosophical effort during these years was on the Rules, a work to convey his new method.
In the Rules, he sought to generalize the methods of mathematics so as to provide a route to
clear knowledge of everything that human beings can know. His methodological advice
included a suggestion that is familiar to every student of elementary geometry: break your
work up into small steps that you can understand completely and about which you have utter
certainty, and check your work often. But he also had advice for the ambitious seeker of
truth, concerning where to start and how to work up to greater things. Thus, Rule 10 reads:
“In order to acquire discernment we should exercise our intelligence by investigating what
others have already discovered, and methodically survey even the most insignificant
products of human skill, especially those which display order” (10:403). As examples of
“simple” arts “in which order prevails,” he offered carpet-making and embroidery, and also
number-games and arithmetic games. He went on to discuss the roles of the “cognitive
faculties” in acquiring knowledge, which include the intellect, imagination, sense perception,
and memory. These faculties allow the seeker of knowledge to combine simple truths in
order to solve more complex problems, such as the solution to problems in optics (10:394),
or the discovery of how a magnet works (10:427).
By the end of 1628, Descartes had abandoned work on the Rules, having completed about
half of the projected treatise. In that year he moved to the Dutch Netherlands, and after that
he returned to France infrequently, prior to moving to Sweden in 1649. While in the
Netherlands, he endeavored to keep his address a secret and he changed locations frequently,
in accordance with his motto, “who lives well hidden, lives well” (1:286*).